Literature review
A good literature review demonstrates that you know the field, justifies the reason for your research and allows you to establish your theoretical framework and methodological focus (PhD Stages, University of Queensland). The literature review is commonly seen as the springboard to the thesis.
Introduction
Literature reviews are not only an integral part of the thesis,
they are also required when writing grant applications, research
reports and journal articles, as well as being sought after by
journals for publication in their own right. Many skills constitute
their development: information
retrieval, information
processing, evaluation, organisational, writing and
original thinking to name a few. The
following resources will be helpful in developing the skills required to
write your literature review.
UniSA resources
On campus workshops
Research Education Support Activities (RESA) offers on campus workshops relevant to the literature review as part of the core series (all disciplines). Check the calendar for details of when these workshops are offered.
Strategies for Successful Research (Library) on campus training provides a series of face to face workshops for UniSA staff, research degree students and postgraduate students to assist in the development and updating of information skills necessary to undertake research.
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Online workshops, courses and resources
Literature review index (RESA) provides links to online workshops, courses and resources.
Word for thesis writing offers sample templates (including a UniSA template) and information on how to use a Word template to write your thesis - the earlier you start using the template the better.
Notemaking from reading is designed to help you develop your notemaking skills under the headings: Your purpose for notemaking; Bibliographic details; When to quote directly; and Constructing notes. Forms of notes such as Linear, Matrix, Pictorial, Tree, Flowchart, and Mindmap are explored.
Research writing skills includes a section on the review of literature and has a health focus.
Strategies for Successful Research provides a series of online learning resources for UniSA staff, research degree and postgraduate students to assist in the development and updating of information skills necessary to undertake research, including:
- Ejournals
- Engineering Village 2
- Introduction to the world wide web
- Keeping up to date
- News Online
- Strategies for searching databases (see also databases below)
- Web of Science
Online guides
Learning and Teaching Unit
- Writing the literature review provides information on the following in relation to the literature review: purpose, common misconceptions, important considerations, the process, constructing the literature, problematising the literature, structuring the literature review, questions and conclusion
- Levels of understanding looks at the depth of analysis of information - literal, lateral, critical and speculative and poses questions to help with the analytical process
- Report writing style guide for engineering students, 4th edition (Winckel & Hart 2002) (PDF file, 259kb) provides formatting guidelines (including information on equations, tables etc), referencing, planning and writing (including information on sentence structure, grammar and vocabulary)
- Summarising outlines the skills for effective summarising with diagrams of mind mapping, flow charts and other methods of recording the main points of an information source
- Referencing looks at styles of referencing, referencing electronic resources, avoiding plagiarism and frequently asked questions and links to Avoiding plagiarism
Library
- Literature reviews points you to university websites and book resources
- Finding theses and dissertations tells you how to search the catalogue for theses, databases relevant to finding theses and training available to develop your skills
Other
Division of Business
Associate Professor Mike Metcalfe (Division of Business) has written the following articles on the literature review:
- Author(ity): The literature review as expert witnesses (PDF file, 144kb)
- 11 ways to critique an article, Part 1 (PDF file, 282kb)
- 11 ways to critique an article, Part 2 (PDF file, 274kb)
- and there are also articles on argumentative inquiry on the Ideas Research Group website, Division of Business
Library
- Bibliographic management software has information on EndNote and RefWorks, both available to students for downloading bibliographic citations and styles
- Databases
- Theses Canada portal database allows you to search the online catalogue for all the Canadian theses and dissertations in their collection and provides free access to full-text electronic theses covering the period from 1998 to 2002
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THESES NUS-Theses collection is a bibliographic database that indexes
theses and academic exercises submitted to the National University of
Singapore and its predecessor institutions, namely Raffles College,
University of Malaya, University of Malaya (Singapore division), the Nanyang
University and the University of Singapore
Other resources
The literature review, Central Queensland University Library, aims 'to help postgraduate students conceptualize, research and write a literature review. The pages are intended as a guide and it is the responsibility of the supervisor to give advice.' Information is structured under the headings: What is a literature review?; Why do a literature review?; Stages in developing a literature review; Tips and tricks from the experts; Tips and tricks from the Faculty Liaison Librarians; Frequently asked Questions.
PhD Stages, University of Queensland, offers the following resources:
The Literature Review (The PostGrad Toolbox, USQ Library): some sections of this page apply specifically to University of Southern Queensland students, but most are generic references to useful websites and sources of information
Forum: Qualitative Social Research (FQS) is a peer-reviewed multilingual online journal for qualitative research with features such as a search facility and thematic issues. See the following full text article as an example:
Author(ity): The Literature Review as Expert Witnesses (Mike Metcalfe, January 2003, FQS, 4, 1)
How literature is structured (Cornell University Library) looks at the developmental stages of literature in a discipline - primary, secondary and tertiary level, and how this determines the search strategy of the researcher.
Referencing
Endnote tutorial (University of Newcastle Library) has the sections:
Getting started; Transferring from databases; Endnote and Word; Managing
your library; FAQs, tips and help.
Evaluating information sources
There are many websites on this topic - a Google search will find more:
- Evaluating World Wide Web information: not all sources on the world wide web are equally valuable or reliable. This resource poses questions to help you evaluate the worth of a site
- Evaluation of information sources contains links to criteria for evaluating information resources, particularly those on the Internet